History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

274
MIGRATION" TO UTAH.
of them were farmers, and they had three or four
grist-mills and two or three saw-mills.
The first emigrants did not stop on the east side of
the river, but passed over at once on arrival, making
their first settlement, as before mentioned, at Winter
Quarters, situated six miles from the present city of
Omaha, at the north end of the plateau, nearly all of
which they ploughed up in the spring of 1847, and
planted seed corn brought by those who the previous
winter had returned to the Mississippi to work
for wages. Hereabout they built many log houses,
Brigham having a little cluster of them for his wives
in a cosey nook apart from the others.
On their final departure for the west, the Mormons
left a few of their number under A. J. Mitchell, who
was assisted by A. J. Smith. They lived on the east
side of the Missouri at first, and had a ferry across
the river as early as 1851, with other ferries west,
one at Loup Fork, and one on the Elkhorn. A large
emigration up the river from New Orleans set in about
this time. In the spring of 1852 the steamboat Saluda,
having six hundred souls on board, was blown
up at the mouth of the Platte.
In 1854 the lands of the Omahas, on the west side
of the river, came into market, through a treaty made
during the summer of that year with the natives, who
ceded that section to the United States. Mitchell
and Smith then moved to the western side, and
changed the name of Winter Quarters to that of
Florence, at the same time selling their interests on
the eastern side to the gentiles, who changed the
name of Kanesville to that of Council Bluffs.